IS A WORKER COOPERATIVE THE ANSWER FOR THE LENGTHY CHARTER SPECTRUM LABOR DISPUTE? Updated Friday: Spectrum Kicked out of NY

Charter Spectrum technicians have been on strike since March 28, 2017. That's a long time.

Here is a recent posting  from the NYCable Truth blog:

A MESSAGE TO LOCAL #3 BROTHERS AND SISTERS ON STRIKE AGAINST CHARTER/SPECTRUM

ON WEDNESDAY JULY 11, 2018 LOCAL UNION #3 MET WITH CHARTER/SPECTRUM IN AN EFFORT TO CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS. THE UNION FORMALLY SUBMITTED A PROPOSAL IN WRITING SIMILAR TO THE LAST PROPOSAL IN DECEMBER 2017, WHICH CONSISTED OF CURRENT STRIKING MEMBERS GOING BACK TO WORK WITH FULL SENIORITY AND WITH LOCAL #3 JOINT BOARD BENEFITS (PENSION & HOSPITALIZATION). NEW EMPLOYEES HIRED AFTER MARCH 28, 2018 WOULD BE COVERED BY THE COMPANY'S BENEFITS. THE COMPANY REJECTED THIS PROPOSAL AND HAD NO COUNTER PROPOSAL. THE UNION WAS INFORMED THAT THE COMPANY HAD ADJUSTMENTS TO THEIR LAST PROPOSAL, BUT THIS PROVED TO BE UNTRUE. IS THIS A SURPRISE THAT SPECTRUM LIES? 

Is there ever going to be a resolution? These workers have a possible answer that I find intriguing. It is called a worker cooperative. It is not as far fetched as people may think.

There is an article in Labor Press on the subject.

Here is a major portion:

 Strikers Introduce New Plan To Succeed Charter/Spectrum In NYC With Worker Cooperative

July 25, 2018

By Joe Maniscalco

New York, NY – A group of striking Charter/Spectrum workers holding the picket line for nearly a year-and-a-half have introduced a new business plan to break the corporation’s stranglehold on cable-TV service in New York City and replace it with a new worker cooperative that benefits everyone.

Striking IBEW Local 3 members have a plan to create a new worker cooperative to succeed Charter/Spectrum in NYC.

It took the group of about 50 strikers just three months to assemble the comprehensive business plan, which they maintain could be enacted with limited disruption to New York City cable-TV subscribers.

“The best time is now,” striking IBEW Local 3 member Troy Walcott, 39, told LaborPress this week. “If [the city] were to deny [Charter/Spectrum’s] Franchise Agreement now, for the stuff they’re doing in the city, [Charter/Spectrum] would still have two years that they have to service the city; during which time we could be building out our network to make the transition as seamless as possible and have as little disruption as possible.”

Charter/Spectrum’s existing Franchise Agreement with the City of New York expires in 2020, but a New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications [DoITT] audit of the agreement completed earlier this year, determined that “because of Charter’s overly broad interpretation of the term ‘located in the City’, Charter failed to engage in practices with respect to its vendor selection that demonstrate compliance with the requirement set forth in Section 17.4 of the Franchise Agreements.”

Additionally, the DoITT audit also noted that an “Administrative Law Judge at the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] found labor law violations on the part of Charter that constitute a default of its obligations under Section 17.1 of the Franchise Agreements.”

A new audit set to begin by September 1, will determine if Charter/Spectrum — the number two cable-TV provider in the nation — is actually in compliance with the terms set out in its Franchise Agreement with New York City.

Charter/Spectrum is in hot water across New York State for allegedly failing to complete the buildout it agreed to as part of its buyout of Time-Warner Cable in 2016, as well as falsely advertising subsequent connection speeds to the public, and providing shoddy service.

Walcott, IBEW Local 3 shop steward at Charter/Spectrum’s College Point facility in Queens, argues that as members of a design and survey team tasked with bringing cable-TV to areas of the city lacking service — he and his fellow strikers are perfectly suited to succeed Charter/Spectrum on city streets.

“We know the system because we built it,” Walcott said. “The system was already crumbling and the infrastructure needed to be redone. This is something that’s going to have to get done anyway. We’re saying, instead of letting them do it, let’s start doing it and rebuilding it ourselves — the people that are actually going to build it anyway.”

Although the 18-page “New York City Communication July 2018 Business Plan”is limited to the five boroughs and Bergen, New Jersey, Walcott says it is a “proof of concept” that can be expanded statewide.

We wish these workers the best and hope they succeed. Launching a worker cooperative would be an excellent way to check corporate power in NYC. I am of course skeptical that the so called progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio will have anything to do with it. He appears on Spectrum's NY 1 channel regularly. If he was really pro worker, maybe he would refuse to go on the anti-labor Spectrum owned channel and get his message out elsewhere.

The concept of empowering workers has been discussed in the schools. I personally believe giving teachers a major say in how schools are run would make a huge difference. Checks on administrative authority usually have a positive impact.

Meanwhile, any support you can give the striking Spectrum workers I'm sure would be appreciated.

Update Friday: Spectrum is being kicked out of NYS by the Public Service Commission for failure to live up to their merger agreement with Time Warner.

ALBANY, New York (WABC) --

New York announced Friday that Charter Communications, Inc., doing business as Spectrum, is no longer permitted to serve customers in the state.

Regulators said that Spectrum, the largest cable provider in New York, failed to comply with several conditions mandated when the state approved Charter's 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable, Inc.

Spectrum reportedly failed to meet deadlines, attempted to skirt obligations to serve rural communities and used unsafe practices in the field.

As a result, the New York State Public Service Commission revoked the approval of the merger.

"Charter's repeated failures to serve New Yorkers and honor its commitments are well documented and are only getting worse," Commission Chair John Rhodes said. "Charter's non-compliance and brazenly disrespectful behavior toward New York State and its customers necessitate the actions taken today seeking court-ordered penalties for its failures, and revoking the Charter merger approval,"

Spectrum provides cable, internet and telephone services to more than 2 million New York subscribers in Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens and parts of Brooklyn, as well as other major metropolitan areas like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany.

The cable provider is required to continue operations for 60 more days without interruptions in service, as the state transitions to a successor provider.

Go to NYCCableTruth for the PSC press release.

I think this is really positive labor news. As the federal government goes completely anti-union and anti-worker, our state is moving left. Keep challenging the corporate Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and they have to respond.

We should be challenging the politicians on the teacher evaluation system. Please sign our petition to repeal the terrible evaluation law.